📆 Friday 27 March 2026 to Sunday 29 March 2026

🏰 Anantara Villa Padierna Palace Resort

🇪🇸 Málaga, Spain.

The Story

In 2025, we hosted the first-ever Cab9 Event in Bangalore, and it really was a one-of-a-kind event for our industry.

For those who attended The Cab9 India Event, they know the calibre of event to expect. But this year, we’re making it bigger, bolder and even more innovative.

Over 100 attendees, groundbreaking product releases, unforgettable parties, drinks, food, the energy, the stories and the friendships... we knew it could not end with India.

So, it's all happening again. But this time, we're taking the magic to Málaga.

Introducing The Cab9 Event - Spain Edition. 🇪🇸

The Cab9 Event - Spain Edition is an opportunity to celebrate innovation, collaboration, and the partnerships that drive the future of dispatch.

We are bringing the Cab9 family back together - this time to the golden hills of Malaga, where innovation meets indulgence and every sunset feels like a celebration.

Hosted at the breathtaking Anantara Villa Padierna Palace Resort, this year’s event is where indulgence meets innovation and every sunset feels like a celebration.

What To Expect?

Get ready to witness the most ground-breaking features we have ever built - across every corner of Cab9 - from drivers and passengers to operators and managers - including the next evolution of AnjAI: smarter, faster, and more connected than ever.

As day turns to night, get ready to turn it up - next-level parties, live entertainment, and the kind of energy that defines Cab9.

Here is what awaits you:

• Experience cutting-edge product launches and innovations from Cab9 before anyone else. 💡
• Connect with industry pioneers, operators, and market-leading suppliers shaping the future of mobility. 🤝
• Join us for insightful sessions and live performances, featuring flamenco dancers, singers, and guitarists for a true taste of Andalusian magic. 🎤
• Enjoy the best of Andalusian hospitality - with open bars, authentic Andalusian dining and amazing entertainment including live performers, dancers, fire shows, photo booths and so much more. 🍸
• Celebrate in style across two unforgettable evenings, from our elegant Welcome Cocktail Dinner at the Anantara Villa Padierna Palace Resort to the glamorous After Party at Trocadero Estepona. 💃

Secure Your Spot

Use the links below to book your tickets for The Cab9 Event  - Spain Edition:

What’s included in your ticket:

• 🎟️ Conference Ticket
• 🛌 Two-night Stay at Anantara Villa Padierna
• 🥘 Food & Beverage across the event
• 💃 Themed Parties
• 🇪🇸 Authentic Spanish Entertainment

Please note that ticket numbers are limited due to the exclusivity of the stunning Anantara Villa Padeirna, so book now to be a part of the future of dispatch innovation.

Extend Your Stay

There are some amazing hotels in Málaga that guests may wish to extend their stay at, or guests can choose to remain at the event venue and experience everything that it has to offer.

If guests wish to extend their stay at the breathtaking Anantara Villa Padierna Palace, our team have worked with the hotel to agree upon an exclusive rate for Cab9 attendees.

Exclusive Room Rates:

• Single Room - 280€ Per room, per night + applicable taxes
• Double Room - 310€ per room, per night + applicable taxes

This payment will be made directly to Anantara Villa Padierna Palace, and the booking will be managed directly by the hotel.

To secure your additional nights at this rate, please contact the hotel directly by sending an email to Patricia Morales and team at p.morales@anantara-hotels.com by clicking the link below:

Our team have prepared an email template with all the pre-determined information needed for booking, you simply need to add:

• Number of Rooms
• Arrival and Departure Dates
• Any Additional Requests

Please also ensure that you copy events@cab9.app into all correspondence so our Events Team can have full visibility on all communications with the hotel.

Proud Sponsors

We are pleased to announce that The Cab9 Event - Spain Edition is proudly sponsored by:

Event Overview and Agenda

Day1: ¡Bienvenidos, Amigos! 🍹🎶

Friday 27 March 2026

Day 1 is all about settling in and enjoying the stunning surroundings of the Anantara Villa Padierna.

Spend the afternoon by the pool, at the spa, on the golf course, or simply exploring the stunning grounds.

Unwind in the Andalusian sun and prepare for an elegant and authentically Spanish Welcome Cocktail Party to kickstart the event - expect Flamenco guitarist performances, Fire Shows, talented Saxophonists, the indulgent flavours of Spain and the true star of the evening, the Candlelight Concert.

Candlelight x The Cab9 Event - Spain Edition 🕯️🎶

At 9pm on Friday 27th March, during the Welcome Party, we are excited to announce a magical open air Candlelight Concert.

We are delighted to be partnering with Candlelight to bring a magical, unique, and one-of-a-kind concert experience to the extraordinary amphitheatre at Anantara Villa Padierna Palace.

To open the event in unforgettable style, Candlelight will perform their signature “ABBA vs QUEEN” concert - an atmospheric live performance set against the glow of hundreds of flickering candles. It is elegant. It is powerful. It is emotive. And it is the perfect way to set the tone for what will be an extraordinary few days together.

Day 2: Viva La Innovación🐎💃

Saturday 28 March 2026

Day 2 is all about industry-shifting product releases, marketing-leading sponsors and building the shared future of dispatch innovation together.

The day will start with a high-energy bang that will continue throughout, featuring performances, supplier networking, a delicious buffet lunch, and afternoon drinks to celebrate a day well spent innovating.

The evening culminates in a beachfront celebration at Trocadero Estepona, where you can experience an open bar, delicious cuisine, live dancers, fire shows and the perfect location to make memories that will last a lifetime.

Day 3: Hasta la Próxima 🏰☀️

Sunday 29 March 2026

After an inspiring weekend, Day 3 offers time to reflect, connect and discuss the game-changing innovations presented during the conference.

Whether you are heading home or extending your stay in Spain, take with you the memories, connections, and ideas that will shape the next chapter of dispatch innovation.

This next chapter will be bigger, bolder, and even more unforgettable, and we cannot wait to see you all there.

We could not be more excited. See you in España! 🐎

Cab9, a market-leading dispatch management system, is thrilled to announce their latest integration with GroundScope, a leading provider of global ground transportation solutions.

The integration enables Cab9 users to seamlessly connect with GroundScope’s global booking platform, offering real-time access to a wider network of corporate travel bookings.

When asked about this new partnership, John McCallion, CEO of GroundScope, commented:

This integration with Cab9 is a game-changer for our Service Partners. It simplifies the booking process, reduces administrative overhead, and ensures a smoother experience for both drivers and passengers. We’re excited to continue building a more connected and efficient ground transport ecosystem.

Cab9 echoed the positive sentiment of this new partnership as Tarpit Grover, Cab9’s Managing Director, added:

We’re thrilled to partner with GroundScope. Our shared vision of innovation and service excellence makes this integration a natural fit. It’s a win-win for operators and their customers.

Key Benefits For Cab9 Users:

• Receive and manage GroundScope bookings directly within Cab9.
• Eliminates the need for manual input.
• Reduces errors through automation.
• Improves operational efficiency.

This integration is now available to all Cab9 clients.

To get started with GroundScope, visit www.groundscope.co.uk or contact support@groundscope.co.uk.

About Cab9
Cab9 is a modern dispatch management system designed to help private hire and chauffeur companies streamline their operations, improve customer service, and grow their businesses.

About GroundScope
GroundScope is a trusted provider of managed ground transportation services for global businesses, offering a seamless booking experience across a network of vetted suppliers in over 100 countries.

Event Details

Friday 4th April 2025 - Monday 7th April 2025
Sheraton Grand Bengaluru Whitefield Hotel & Convention Center

Cab9 India Event is an opportunity to shape the future of dispatch together, featuring engaging talks, entertainment, and networking opportunities.

Here’s why this is an event you won’t want to miss:

• 🚀 Be the first to uncover game-changing innovations—our most significant leap forward since Cab9 began.
• 💻 Meet the team behind Cab9 and discover how we’re shaping the platform to empower your business.
• 🤝 Network with industry leaders and Cab9 operators from across the UK and beyond.
• 🍹 Enjoy 3 incredible nights with all-inclusive meals, drinks, and themed entertainment.
• 🌴 Participate in 2 days of inspiring talks, guest speakers, and exciting activities.

Event Overview & Agenda

Day 1: Check-In, Unwind & Network

Agenda

Day 1 at the India event focuses on relaxation, unwinding, and networking with a flexible schedule. Explore the hotel's amenities like our stunning outdoor pool or book a rejuvenating massage at Shine Spa - be sure to reserve in advance.

The spa offers full-body massages perfect for preparing you for upcoming activities, while the well-equipped gym features various equipment along with a sauna and steam room.

Alternatively, relax at the hotel bar or visit Nexus Mall across the road. With evening festivities starting later, you'll have ample time to unwind and adjust before the excitement begins.

Day 2: By Innovation Only

Agenda

Day 2 is set to be an unforgettable experience brimming with innovation, exciting announcements, and abundant opportunities to connect. Anticipate the highly awaited reveal of AnjAI and exclusive feature launches that you won't want to miss.

Beyond these major unveilings, enjoy engaging conversations over coffee and a variety of delicious flavours throughout the day.

The evening brings our themed highlight - a vibrant Bollywood-themed event at Hitchki, ensuring the day ends in style. Plus, there's a special live performance lined up for the night - details will be shared soon. 🤫

Prepare yourself for an action-packed day filled with inspiration, innovation, and celebration!

Day 3: An Insight Into The Future of Dispatch

Agenda

As we enter Day 3, the culmination of our event, our focus turns to the future of dispatch and transportation. Day 3 is dedicated to exploring what lies ahead with Workshare 's evolution, insights from key industry partners, and opportunities for connection and collaboration. Expect thought-provoking discussions, networking opportunities, and an engaging talks from our clients.

True to Cab9 tradition, we'll end with a memorable celebration. Join us for a fun-filled Hawaiian-themed evening at ABV - don your brightest Hawaiian shirts, flower garlands, and grass skirts—and let's celebrate the future of dispatch innovation together!

We are filled with excitement for our Event in India. This event is something to look forward to - a celebration of innovation, connection, and the partnerships that make Cab9 truly exceptional. Our team have been working tirelessly to curate a list of fantastic venues where we will be debuting the hard work of our engineering team - including a range of amazing product features and new releases. We cannot wait to finally show you all the results of months and months of hard work and innovation - it's not been easy keeping these under wraps!

See you in Bangalore!

Important Information

Dear E9 Team

For those of you who know me you may know of my interest in flying. So here's a story I stumbled upon a couple years ago.

In the early 1900s the US war department had assembled every ingredient for success in their pursuit of inventing a flying machine (planes). They pulled together the best minds of the day, a quality dream team of talent and know-how.  With the team they had gathered and ample resources, their success was guaranteed. Or was it? A few hundred miles away, two brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright had a passion to fly so intense that it inspired the enthusiasm and commitment of a dedicated group in their hometown. There was no funding for their venture. No government grants or high-level connections. Not a single person on the team had an advanced degree, not even Wilbur or Orville. But the team banded together in a humble bicycle shop and made their vision real. On December 17, 1903, a small group witnessed a human take flight for the first time in history and there was no press around.

I draw a lot of similarities from this story. It was only May when we were told that we are at least 2 years away from taking on someone like Blueline and here we are in November ready to take our flight. Clients from all over the country have come to support us today. Let me take a moment and say, I am so proud and so gifted to be a part of this team and from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank each and every one of you for doing what you have done over the last 6 months.

I would like to extend a special thank you to the mobile development team. The efforts put over the last few days are exceptional and if someone was to know how hard you actually worked they simply won't believe it. I honestly can't wait for what the future holds!

A special mention to the ladies of this project. Soumya, Akhila, Jo, Christin, Manika, Anjali.  First class software development coupled with thorough project management. With ground breaking features like Cab9 Go, dispatch on mobile, dashboard, driver portal, onboarding portal, overview screens, demand management and now Cab9 Next it's suffice to say "You have simply done a cracking job!" 😄

David, Sajad, Harsh, Ankit, Pratik, Karan and Sharvilak - a simple salute will have to do.

Support team - thank you for buffering so many issues and smashing them at the first line of defence. You guys are amazing!

Finally a huge thank you to the members of the software services team. Building tech at scale is expensive (very fucking expensive) and without the revenues from the services department, we would be nowhere. Now the taxi market in the UK has a viable alternative and on behalf of the entire Cab9 community I would like to thank you once again. 🙏

Its a foggy morning in Newcastle today and I can't see the Tyne bridge but as I watch this dimly lit street through my window, all I feel is excitement and happiness that we made it to the runway. Let's fly this thing around the world 🌎 guys.

Love
TG

Queen Elizabeth reigned over the Commonwealth nations for 70 years with a remarkable sense of duty and perseverance. She became for many the one constant point in a rapidly changing world as society changed beyond recognition.

Her loss has been deeply felt throughout the country, and by countless people around the world. In the past few days, we witnessed from our office in Westminster the outpouring of love and respect within people queueing for hours outside of Westminster Palace to pay their respects to the Queen. A Queen so loved and admired by the people, she selflessly served until her final days.

Our humble tribute to Her Royal Highness the Queen of England.

As at E9, we pay our final respects on the day of her funeral, I would like to share with you a few words of tribute to an outstanding figure that has accompanied me throughout my whole life.

To HRH Queen of England Elizabeth II.

Since setting my foot in the UK, you were the only Royalty I had known. There were many queens that were named during the past four decades around the world. But, you were THE QUEEN, with the crown and royalty shining through your body and soul with a spirit that was pure and humble, yet Powerful.

The United Kingdom was your Island, the Commonwealth was your Pride in a World which admired and loved your visits. As Daughter, Sister, Wife, Grandmother and Great Grandmother, head of state for 70 years you served all of the above with grace and honour. No one I know and no one I will know, has achieved a life of giving so much in abundance to fellow humans.

I wish we had crossed paths, but it seems you were always in my life, since I first saw your yearly televised Christmas message in 1976. Ever since, I followed you quietly whether it was Black and white/coloured TV, a Radio or Newspaper.

God & Holy Spirits displayed wonderful affection of farewell with a “Rainbow” over your home Windsor Castle at the precise moment of your death announcement, the heavens also opened with showers.

We will miss you dearly now and always, but you will never leave our hearts and thoughts. As you once said “Grief is the price we pay for love”. I’m sure you would have wanted “the show to go on”.

May You Rest in Peace with your loved ones gone before you.

Respectfully,
Sajad Akhtar

Writing good software is hard. Distributing it is harder.

As a dispatch software, Cab9 has grown rapidly over the past years in its ability to support all kinds of taxi businesses. It caters to a wide range of companies, each with its own capability and resource constraints. It is important to us that all our customers are fully aware of Cab9’s capabilities and how to put them to use.

Over time, we sensed that for any feature to go from being shipped to actually being useful to our customers, a significant amount of time goes into educating them about new features. For a taxi business, retraining its staff to be acquainted with every new feature release incurs a considerable cost.

Conventional user interfaces often have to be aided with lots of documentation and visual cues for them to be discoverable and useful. A user needs to be aware of all the navigation flows and behaviours. Performing mission-critical operations such as receiving calls, creating bookings, and dispatching drivers at volume can easily become stressful. Building these interfaces not only increases our time-to-market but is also detrimental to our primary goal of enabling the state of Flow to all our users.

A New Interface

We’ve always held the analogy that great dispatch software should be built like an airline cockpit — quick access to information and control is paramount.

It’s rather counter-intuitive and would be considered a bad design for any other software application. However, a taxi dispatcher needs that kind of control and access to information throughout his day. With that realised, our challenge was to build an interface that can provide remarkable control over the system while keeping it extremely accessible.

Cab9’s New Dispatch brings a revolutionary new delivery mechanism that tackles all these challenges. It enables instant feature discovery and brings down the user training time to a near-zero. The result is an interface that is so intuitive, even a novice user can start dispatching within minutes.

No wonder we received the quote below from our beta testing client:

Stay tuned to find out more about our motivations and the journey behind building the New Dispatch.

Come join us for an exciting demo of what the future of taxi dispatch looks like.

Click below to register for the webinar.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Cab9 Webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Based in London, Cab9 is a cloud-based business management tool for taxi and chauffeuring firms. The innovative design & powerful capabilities allow Cab9 users to communicate with their businesses in a seamless manner. We at Cab9 have been working on re-inventing taxi dispatch. Join us on this web…

Zoom Video Communications

Starting my career as a computer programmer, one of the things I often seek is to achieve is the state of Flow. Remember the last time you were so deeply engrossed in an activity that you lost all track of time, all your senses were focussed towards that single thing and nothing else mattered. This euphoric, effortless and deeply satisfying state of mind is often termed as “Flow”

Whilst in flow:

• You are intensely focussed on what you’re doing.
• Time melts away. Hours go by in what might seem like mere minutes.
• You know what needs to be done in order to progress and achieve your goal.
• The activity itself feels rewarding, you do it for the craft alone and all external incentives disappear.

Those who have mastered a particular skill will be familiar with the feelings described above. You see flow turns work into play and some would even say that flow is the deepest form of happiness!

Flow is what enabled the likes of Michelangelo to birth creations like David. Effort takes a backseat when your mind is in flow, as you chisel slowly at the task at hand. Flow is everywhere: figure skaters, skiers, painters, programmers, and athletes are all capable of experiencing flow.

So is a taxi dispatch controller.

While creating the new dispatch experience, I was determined to finding an interface that enables flow!

High Skill vs High Challenge

In pursuit of flow the first and the most important dynamic we stumbled across was measuring teamwork in complex socio-technical systems. The high performers in these systems often experience flow.

During our discovery and gap analysis phase we visited several taxi companies and made a very interesting observation - taxi dispatch controllers operate a very high skill level - suffice to achieve flow. They process several variables at the same time and constantly make decisions based on those variables. The decisions have a real time impact and quite often the impact represents the micro-reward.

More importantly, they spend several hours on a dispatch interface and hence our new dispatch should have the following basics covered:

👨🏻‍💻 Distraction free interface

Important information should be visible without any distractions. The layout should be minimalistic yet informational - Good design is as little design as possible!

⚡️Clear and immediate feedback

Even milliseconds matter. 100ms is the threshold at which interactions feel instantaneous. The New Dispatch uses cutting edge technologies on your browser to manage a lot of data locally, reducing network call to our servers.

💡Knowing what to do next and knowing how to do it

Hesitation is the flow killer. On New Dispatch users inherently know their next action and an obvious way of executing it. (The One Box - more on this later...)

💪🏽 Match high challenge with high skill

When skill exceeds challenge, users feel relaxed or bored. When challenge exceeds skill, users feel anxious or worried. Quite clearly in our case the high skill needed to be matched with high challenge.

With these basic principles underlined, we started developing a product that will put our users in flow. Our goal is to make the entire experience of taxi dispatching effortless and satisfying.

Stay tuned to know about our second biggest motivation behind the New Dispatch experience.

Come join us for an exciting demo of what the future of taxi dispatch looks like.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Cab9 Webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Based in London, Cab9 is a cloud-based business management tool for taxi and chauffeuring firms. The innovative design & powerful capabilities allow Cab9 users to communicate with their businesses in a seamless manner. We at Cab9 have been working on re-inventing taxi dispatch. Join us on this web…

Zoom Video Communications

Jyrney, provider of transformative mobility services to the travel and transport industry, have agreed a strategic partnership with Cab9.

Jyrney's proprietary technology integrates directly with travel and transport companies to provide customers access to ground transport within their usual booking environment. Jyrney brings together thousands of vehicles into a single platform and easily integrated API.

Leading taxi and private hire dispatch provider Cab9 develops client focused solutions which  provide a competitive edge for over 130 fleet operators. Cab9’s technology providing the tools for their customers to accelerate growth and increase customers.

The integration with Jyrney allows Cab9 operators to increase bookings and reduce administration through the automation of the booking process between both businesses.  The collaboration marks Cab9’s ongoing commitment to ensure their customers have access to bookings from the wider transport industry.

Daniel Price Co-founder and CEO of Jyrney said

Cab9 have a reputation for building high quality technical solutions for the taxi and private hire industry.  Our partnership will deliver to our clients a premium technical service from the Cab9 fleet operators.  Cab9 have built a unique network of fleets and we are extremely excited to work together to welcome their fleets onto the Jyrney network

Tarpit Grover, Managing Director at Cab9 said:

At Cab9 we are open to all aggregator integrations and are thrilled to be partnering with Jyrney. They have successfully managed to identify gaps in what some might consider a saturated industry. It’s exciting to see Jyrney take on several facets of this sector - taxi, chauffeur and car rental. We are confident that this integration will facilitate a better, more seamless experience for their client base whilst increasing demand for our clients.

Cab9 customers who are interested in joining the Jyrney network can register here
https://jyrney.com/become-a-supplier

About Jyrney

Jyrney is a Manchester based start up with a founding team highly experienced in mobility. Working with established travel and transport businesses, Jyrney helps extend their mobility offering for their customers through a simple integration with their industry leading API.

Jyrney’s managed network of mobility partners provides customers with a more connected journey. The technology integrates on-demand and pre-book trips into travel management company booking tools and mobility platforms, keeping their customers within their own booking environment, improving in-policy bookings and increasing revenue.

You can find out more about Jyrney at www.jyrney.com

WE ENABLE TOTAL MOBILITY

Integrate ground transport into your business

JyrneyJyrney

About Cab9

Based in London, Cab9 is a cloud based business management tool for taxi and chauffeuring firms. The innovative design & powerful capabilities allow Cab9 users to communicate with their businesses in a seamless manner. The solution includes a sophisticated dispatch system, fully featured driver and passenger apps, business management tools, reporting and invoice production capabilities.

Cab9 is bringing large and small fleets together with Workshare which allows Cab9 users to build a nationwide virtual fleet.

You can find out more about Cab9 at www.cab9.app

Cab9

Cab9 is a powerful dispatch system with fully featured driver and passenger apps that seamlessly integrate with your workflow. Configure the system to suit your business needs and let Cab9 take care of the rest.

Cab9

Cab9, the leading provider of taxi and ride-hailing services, announced today its integration with what3words, a unique global addressing system that provides a precise and easy-to-use way of identifying any location on the planet.

The integration allows Cab9 customers to book rides using their what3words address, making it easier and faster to find their pickup location. With what3words, every 3m x 3m square in the world has a unique three-word address, making it possible for people to share and find locations with greater accuracy and ease.

"We're always looking for ways to improve the customer experience and what3words is a game-changer," said Tarpit, Managing Director of Cab9. "By integrating what3words, we're able to provide our customers with a fast, reliable, and accurate pickup service, no matter where they are. This is just one of the many steps we're taking to ensure our customers can travel with confidence."

The integration of what3words and Cab9 is a significant milestone in the development of location-based services, providing customers with a new level of convenience and accuracy. With millions of users in over 150 countries, what3words is rapidly becoming the standard for location-based services, and Cab9 is proud to be at the forefront of this revolution.

I'm excited by the integration of what3words into Cab9's dispatching platforms which will equip taxi operators with another tool to help drivers arrive at the right place on time. Being able to give a precise pick-up or drop-off location enhances customer experience by allowing passengers to specify an exact entrance to a big venue, a point on the roadside, or a new build property.

- Patrick Arbuthnot, Partnerships Lead at what3words

About Cab9

Cab9 is a leading provider of taxi and ride-hailing services, offering a range of options to meet the needs of its customers. With a fleet of professional drivers and a user-friendly app, Cab9 provides fast, reliable, and safe transportation services to millions of people around the world.

About what3words

what3words is a unique global addressing system that has divided the world into 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique three-word address. This makes it possible for people to accurately find and share any location on the planet with just three words. With millions of users in over 150 countries, what3words is rapidly becoming the standard for location-based services.

We love shipping new features to our drivers and passengers at Cab9. However, given the scale at which Cab9 operates and the sheer number of variations we have to support which also includes personalising our Driver and Passenger apps for all our clients we realised that a manual deployment process won't scale as we grow.

Our existing manual processes relied heavily on individual developers to perform builds, test and release software to our users. To add to that, our project managers were often busy working on laborious and repetitive tasks related to distribution, documenting and testing. With most of these tasks happening on personal machines it also lacked transparency and hence we didn't have a lot of insights on our app releases.

It was time we employed a solution that would automate these processes for us. We looked at a number of existing systems and ultimately settled on using GitHub Actions  starting with the next version of our Driver app.

Before getting into the details, let's understand the function of CI/CD pipeline and why we chose GitHub over other systems.  

CI/CD which stands for continuous integration/continuous deployment defines a set of operating principles which enable software development teams to build and deliver code changes more frequently and reliably. It is a programming philosophy and not a technical specification. Developers today work on multiple platforms and across different environments. Working with an agile methodology makes it hard to predetermine when and how new updates should be integrated into existing systems. Continuous Integration is a way to automatically validate and integrate these code changes. Continuous Deployment picks up where CI ends, it's the process by which the final packaged software is deployed for public use, which often is a laborious and monotonous task. Cab9 which caters to a wide range of clients and platforms needed such a solution.

Initially we looked at Jenkins, a popular multipurpose automation software that has been widely used to build CI/CD pipelines. While it does a great job at automating most of the tasks in our app deployment process, it requires you to run a dedicated server, which is just introducing another point of failure. Also, to achieve anything we have to install a vast number of plugins. These plugins are often unmaintained and they introduce more bugs than they solve.

Another popular and mature CI/CD tool is Travis CI, while it can be directly integrated into GitHub and solves many Jenkins' problems, it still lacks the configurability that we were seeking.

Considering the aforementioned factors we decided to use GitHub actions. GitHub provides a simple way to build pipelines using its workflows, it allows tight integration with your source code directly and more importantly, you don't need to run a server. GitHub also has a huge marketplace of prebuilt tools which can be quickly used in our pipelines. GitHub provides its own compute time to run your pipelines and unlike Travis it includes a free plan.

Setting up a GitHub workflow

At its core GitHub enables you to build pipelines using 'workflows'. A workflow defines a set of 'actions' that are executed sequentially by default.

Creating a workflow is simple. Navigate to the "Actions" tab under your repository, click on "Setup a workflow yourself", this will create a YAML file under a directory .github/workflows in your repository with the name of your choosing. You can also create this file manually and push it to your repository.

Defining Triggers

GitHub workflows are event-driven, meaning a workflow is run when a specific event occurs with our repository. There can be a variety of events but the most commonly used events are:

• push - when commits are pushed to a repository
• pull_request - when a branch receives pull request
  

Workflows can also be triggered manually using a mechanism called "Workflow Dispatch"

Defining Jobs

A job is a set of steps that is executed within a workflow. A workflow can have multiple jobs. Conceptually a job should define a set of related steps. For example, if we want our workflow to build an application and run some tests, we'd define all the build steps in one job and all the testing steps in another. By default multiple jobs run in parallel, however they can be configured to run sequentially.

A Step is an individual task in a job that can either run shell commands or run an action. All steps within share the same context.

Using Actions

Actions are a specific type of step. You can create your own actions in separate YAML files or re-use existing ones that are available through an open source marketplace which is browsable through GitHub. Many of the functionality we might want to implement is most likely, already there so we can just directly use available actions in our workflow.

Actions are the building blocks of a GitHub pipeline.

The below code written in YAML represents a sample workflow. It defines a single job that is triggered when commits are pushed to the develop branch. It uses the action 'checkout' which is a widely used action to unpack code from our branch into our current job's working directory. The workflow also outputs the checked directory using a simple step that runs a shell command 'ls'

name: Sample Workflow

# Define Trigger
on:	
	push:
    	branches:
        	- develop

jobs:
	sampleJob:
    	runs-on: ubuntu-latest #define the runner
        
        steps:
        	- name: Checkout
              uses: actions/checkout@v2

            - run: ls

Using a strategy matrix

Very often we might have a lot of similar tasks but with slightly different parameters. For example, we might have to run two different build tasks one for a production environment and the other for development environment. Writing two different jobs for these would be redundant and cumbersome. We can simplify this by making using of a strategy matrix. Using a matrix we can define all our variants and a single job definition. The workflow will then generate jobs for each variant which are then run in parallel. The name of the variant can then be used to make specific decisions in our job. Extending the above example, we can define a matrix for production and development as follows

name: Sample Workflow

# Define Trigger
on:	
	push:
    	branches:
        	- develop

jobs:
	sampleJob:
    	runs-on: ubuntu-latest #define the runner
        
        #Define a matrix
        strategy:
      		matrix:
        		build_env: [prod, dev]

        steps:
        	- name: Checkout
              uses: actions/checkout@v2

            - run: ls
            - run: echo ${{matrix.build_env}} #access current matrix 

Using workflow dispatch for manual triggers

So far, we have seen that workflows can be triggered through events that occur on our GitHub repository. While this works great once we have tested our pipelines and they're ready for production, it is good to have the option to trigger workflows manually. Additionally we would like to pass on some input parameters that can be used in our workflows. We can do so with the help of  workflow dispatch. These are manual events that can be invoked through the GitHub UI or through Github's REST API. Extending the above example, we can define a manual dispatch event as follows. The below workflow takes in an input called environment, which can be accessed across the workflow.

name: Sample Workflow

# Define workflow dispatch trigger
on:	
	workflow_dispatch:
    	inputs:
      		environment:
        		required: true
        		description: 'Provide the environment name'

jobs:
	sampleJob:
    	runs-on: ubuntu-latest #define the runner
        
        #Define a matrix
        strategy:
      		matrix:
        		build_env: [prod, dev]

        steps:
        	- name: Checkout
              uses: actions/checkout@v2

            - run: ls
            - run: echo ${{ github.event.inputs.environment }} #access workflow dispatch inputs 

Once defined, this workflow dispatch can be manually triggered under workflow's menu by clicking on Run Workflow

Bringing it all together for Cab9's Android Driver App

Once we had a clear overview of GitHub actions, we were able to define a workflow to manage the integration and delivery of Cab9's Android App.

To start with, our workflow had to achieve the following goals.

• Checkout the code whenever our develop branch is updated
• Setup a JDK  environment.
• Generate debug and release variants using gradle
• Generate bundles (.aab) and package(.apk)
• Sign our release apk and bundle with our existing keystore
• Upload generated apks and bundles ( Artifacts ) to GitHub's storage
• Create a GitHub release with the signed artifact

Fortunately we didn't have to write any custom action to manage this pipeline. We were able to make use of existing actions on the GitHub marketplace. The actions we used were

actions/checkout@v2
Checks out code from repository branch

actions/setup-java@v1.4.3
Sets up java and JDK

eskatos/gradle-command-action@v1.3.3
Runs gradle commands, required to assemble our binary.

r0adkll/sign-android-release@v1.0.1
Signs android release files using keystore store as a GitHub secret

actions/upload-artifact@v2
Uploads generated artifacts to GitHub's storage for easy download

actions/create-release@v1
Creates a software release with source code, release notes and the final package

Defining the matrix and jobs

To generate a bundle (.aab) and package(.apk) and a debug and release version for each variant we define a 2x2 matrix. Additionally, our debug versions don't need to be signed, we can control this by providing a condition in our sign step.

Signing and Secrets

GitHub provides a safe way to store secrets such as keystores within the repository itself. These can be uploaded as base64 strings from the secrets menu in the repository settings.

These secrets can be easily accessed in our workflows using the variable:

${{ secrets.CAB9 }}

These secrets are encrypted on the client side and have a global scope, hence they can be used multiple workflows.

Final Pipeline Code

name: Build Cab9 Android

# Controls when the action will run.
on: 
  push:
    branches:
      - develop

  pull_request:
    branches:
      - develop
      
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      matrix:
        build_type: [Release, Debug] 
        build_format: [assemble, bundle] # apk and aab
 
    steps:  
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Setup JDK
        uses: actions/setup-java@v1.4.3
        with:
          java-version: 1.8

      - name: Build all artifacts
        id: builAllApks
        uses: eskatos/gradle-command-action@v1.3.3
        with:
          gradle-version: current
          wrapper-cache-enabled: true
          dependencies-cache-enabled: true
          configuration-cache-enabled: true
          arguments: ${{ matrix.build_format }}Cab9${{ matrix.build_type }}
      
      - name: Sign Artifacts
        id: signArtifact
        uses: r0adkll/sign-android-release@v1.0.1
        if: ${{ matrix.build_type == 'Release' }}
        with:
          releaseDirectory: app/build/outputs/apk/cab9/release
          alias: ${{ secrets.CAB9_ALIAS }}
          signingKeyBase64: ${{ secrets.CAB9 }}
          keyStorePassword: ${{ secrets.CAB9_KEYPASSWORD }}
          keyPassword: ${{ secrets.CAB9_KEYPASSWORD }}

      - name: Upload artifacts
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
        with:
          name: Cab9-Generic
          path: | 
              app/build/outputs/**/*.apk
              ${{steps.signArtifact.outputs.signedReleaseFile}}


      - name: Create Release
        id: create_release
        uses: actions/create-release@v1
        if: ${{ matrix.build_type == 'Release' }}
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        with:
          tag_name: ${{ github.ref }}
          release_name: Release ${{ github.ref }}
          draft: false
          prerelease: true

      - name: Save name of our Artifact
        id: set-result-artifact
        if: ${{ matrix.build_type == 'Release' }}
        run: |
          ARTIFACT_PATHNAME_APK=$(ls app/build/outputs/apk/cab9/release/*.apk | head -n 1)
          ARTIFACT_NAME_APK=$(basename $ARTIFACT_PATHNAME_APK)
          echo "ARTIFACT_NAME_APK is " ${ARTIFACT_NAME_APK}
          echo "ARTIFACT_PATHNAME_APK=${ARTIFACT_PATHNAME_APK}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "ARTIFACT_NAME_APK=${ARTIFACT_NAME_APK}" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Upload our Artifact Assets
        id: upload-release-asset
        uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1
        if: ${{ matrix.build_type == 'Release' }}
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        with:
          upload_url: ${{ steps.create_release.outputs.upload_url }}
          asset_path: ${{ env.ARTIFACT_PATHNAME_APK }}
          asset_name: ${{ env.ARTIFACT_NAME_APK }}
          asset_content_type: application/zip
      
      

Build Results

Once a build is triggered, we can see the build logs by clicking on our workflow run through the actions menu.

Here  we can see four jobs running in parallel representing our matrix. We see detailed logs for each job as well.

We can also see that the conditional steps have been skipped for our debug version.

Build Artifacts

As defined in our Step 5 of our job, we're saving the generated artifacts using the official GitHub action actions/upload-artifact@v2. Saving these generated artifacts is useful, firstly it provides as easy way to download the generated bundles and packages as a singe zipped file, secondly it serves as a historic record of the generated builds as each workflow run has its own artifacts. To access the uploaded artifacts, click on the workflow and find them at the bottom of the result screen.

Creating Releases

While I've run the risk of losing your attention with the length of this post, the one last thing I'd like to talk about is about creating releases on github.  Releases offer a convenient way of distributing software to your users. A release essentially is a point in time in your development cycle where the software is read to be distributed. The last two steps in our workflow is doing the work of creating a release. To put it briefly, it starts a release, writes any notes required and finally uploads the generated artifacts along with the source code at that point. A generated release can be accessed from the homepage of your repository.  This post provides a good introduction to GitHub releases

In Conclusion

GitHub actions has vastly simplified and standardised the way we build and release our mobile apps at Cab9. Not only does it remove the dependancy on a single developer to follow the necessary practices, it moves the control over to the cloud thereby offering more transparency over our development cycles.
These are necessary steps required to build a scalable development team and GitHub actions is a great way to get started.

Introduction

The new iOS driver app for Cab9 is built using SwiftUI. For years the E9 development teams have been doing reactive programming on web frameworks so when we discovered that SwiftUI provides mechanisms for reactive programming with BindableObject, ObjectBinding, and the whole Combine framework, we had to give it a go.

We had already built and released a fully functioning mobile app using SwiftUI so we decided to use it for Cab9's driver driver app too.

DatePickers and SwiftUI

SwiftUI’s DatePicker view is analogous to UIDatePicker, and comes with a variety options for controlling how it looks and works. Like all controls that store values, it does need to be bound to some sort of state in your app.

However for our view we needed a DatePicker that only allowed the selection of a particular month in a year. The page will allow a driver to choose the month and see the payments received in that month.

Designing the Year/Month DatePicker

As per the design the Datepicker is divided into two parts.

1. Year Selector - Allows the user to choose one year at a time.
2. Month Selector - A scrollable pane to choose the month from an year

The years could be changed by tapping the < and > chevrons. The design required the user to be able to see and choose only one year at a time.

Let's look at the SwiftUI code for designing the year view:

Stack {
    Image(systemName: "chevron.left")
        .foregroundColor(.white)
        .frame(width: 24.0)
    Text("2021").foregroundColor(.white).font(.textBold)
        .transition(.move(edge: .trailing))
    Spacer()
    Image(systemName: "chevron.right")
        .foregroundColor(.white)
        .frame(width: 24.0)
}.padding(.all, 12.0)
.background(Color.brandPrimaryColor)

The images with chevron.left and chevron.right will be used to reduce and increase the years.

Now lets look at the month view

let months: [String] = Calendar.current.shortMonthSymbols

ScrollView(.horizontal) {
    HStack() {
        ForEach(months, id: \.self) { item in
            Text(item)
                .foregroundColor((item == currentMonth) ? .blue:.black)
                .padding(.all, 12.0)
        }
    }
}

Since this is a month/year selector, we decided the final result should be a range and that range had to be made available as a @State variable to it could be passed from the parent.

@State var dateRange: Range<Date>

With our view and strategy in place, we had to write the vanilla functionality of changing the years and the month.

Final Result

Please find below final code for the month/year selector using SwiftUI.

import SwiftUI

struct YearMonthCalendarView: View {
    @State var selectedYear: Int = Calendar.current.component(.year, from: Date())
    @State var selectedMonth: String = Date().monthShort
    let months: [String] = Calendar.current.shortMonthSymbols
    @State var dateRange: Range<Date>
    
    var body: some View {
        // Year View
        VStack(spacing:0) {
            Group {
                HStack {
                    Image(systemName: "chevron.left")
                        .foregroundColor(.white)
                        .frame(width: 24.0)
                        .onTapGesture {
                            selectedYear -= 1;
                            selectedMonth = ""
                        }
               Text(String(selectedYear)).foregroundColor(.white).font(.textBold)
                        .transition(.move(edge: .trailing))
                    Spacer()
                    Image(systemName: "chevron.right")
                        .foregroundColor(.white)
                        .frame(width: 24.0)
                        .onTapGesture {
                            selectedYear += 1;
                            selectedMonth = ""
                        }
                }.padding(.all, 12.0)
                .background(.blue)
            }
            Group {
                ScrollView(.horizontal) {
                    HStack() {
                        ForEach(months, id: \.self) { item in
                            Text(item)
                                .foregroundColor((item == selectedMonth) ? .blue:.black)
                                .padding(.all, 12.0)
                                .onTapGesture {
                                    self.setPeriod(selectedMonth: item)
                                }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            Divider()
        }
        .onAppear() {
            selectedYear = Int(dateRange.lowerBound.yearFull)!
            selectedMonth = dateRange.lowerBound.monthShort
        }
    }
    
    func setPeriod(selectedMonth: String) {
        self.selectedMonth = selectedMonth
        let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
        dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd/MMM/yyy"
        let startDate = dateFormatter.date(from: "01/" + selectedMonth + "/" + String(selectedYear))
        let endDate = startDate?.endOfMonth
        self.dateRange = .init(uncheckedBounds: (lower: startDate!, upper: endDate!))
    }
}

struct YearMonthCalendarView_Previews: PreviewProvider {
    static var previews: some View {
        YearMonthCalendarView(dateRange: .init(uncheckedBounds: (lower: Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .month, value: 2, to: Date())!.startOfMonth, upper: Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .month, value: 2, to: Date())!.endOfMonth)))
    }
}

How did it all start?

It was the absolute first gathering of the year and everybody was inspired to set objectives for themselves when this thought was set into place. It was a new month of a new year and we were all exuberant to accept challenges and work towards building things to Cab9 to enrich the user experience.

One among a myriad of objectives we set out for 2021 was to level up Cab9’s Support. In my previous communications with the clients, I had introduced them to the support portal. This time I wanted to extend that by presenting some analytics that could be of some actionable value. Our performance statistics are based on response times, outstanding ticket close time, analysis of tickets, requests, and bugs, and customer sentiments upon closure of the ticket.

With so many metrics to explore, it’s easy to lose track. Before you know it, you’ve spent the entire day fixated on one customised chart that serves no real purpose. That’s when I realised that when it comes to reporting, focusing on value is everything. If a metric does not generate value or pose a question it should not be presented on the report.

I’d like to present the experiences and the thought process that have guided the structure of my reports.

Figuring out the Right Metrics

The customer service software produces incredibly detailed reports, but from a bird's eye level does not highlight the data that really matters to the team. Additionally, these reports are complex and lack an abstraction that is generally required in driving business decisions. After researching for a long time I concluded that there are three important questions that largely help in determining the right metrics for the report.

Why are we reporting?

While brainstorming a couple of reasons behind this I found my reasons to build a report. I wanted to do something new, any project I will pick has to be useful, assess how is our support team performing, It will be interesting to present how quickly we respond to support tickets, etc. With mixed thoughts and a faint idea about reporting I decided to gather basic stats, for instance, tickets resolved, tickets pending, response times, reasons behind the lag, etc. to understand what could be my potential metrics. Nevertheless, this activity pointed out two important metrics for me. Together the response time and the reason behind the lag picture out how quickly a team responds to customers and how effective they are at making customers happy.

Who will have an access to this report?

The depth of these reports should be relevant to the intended audience. A team member will need different insights than a client or a stakeholder.  Since I had to present this report to my team I chose metrics like response times, customer satisfaction levels, number of queries with the explicit purpose to analyse our internal process.

What do you want the outcome to be?

Report the numbers that indicate the outcome. For instance, if you want to decrease the response time then it would be worth first analyse the average weekly response times for a minimum of six weeks to figure out the trends and the reason behind high or low times if any.

Choosing the Reporting Platform

Once we know the metrics we want to track it is important to choose the right software that supports data storage and analysis, presentation, organisational planning, and more. In terms of the numbers of hours spent, there could be an up-front cost involved in building these reports initially but the subsequent reports should be a breeze. A bit of research, in the beginning, goes a long way. The systems we chose should automate most of the tasks that are repetitive.

The platform we went for was google sheets thanks to the high number of plugins and connections the service offered.

Google Sheets: Free Online Spreadsheets for Personal Use

Create a new spreadsheet and edit it with others at the same time — from your computer, phone or tablet. Free with a Google account.

Presentation of the Data

A well-prepared presentation grasps audience interests and highlights the key areas. However, I believe we should also filter our report on the basis of what the specific audience needs to know. The scale and detail included varies depending on the audience, even if we’re addressing the same question. For instance, “How is our support team performing?” the report should look different based on the audience. An individual agent needs to know their team isn’t being efficient this week, but the business owner or stakeholders doesn’t need to know that this specific week has seen a small drop in productivity on the team. Rather should be presented trends for a month or six weeks.

Monitoring and Analysing the Data Regularly

To ensure the customer service report provides invaluable quality and the best possible data, we need to regularly monitor and analyse our findings and make sure the data is up to date and valid in any given situation. By analysing the numbers, raising questions to self, making necessary amendments to the charts, colours, etc, one can make its presentation interesting and engaging.

Finally, a report should help a team improve. By choosing the right metrics we can record any fluctuations or gaps in the data which helps pinpoint valuable insights that spark positive change. My first presentation drove me to document "Ticket Closing Generalised Process" and that is a positive change.

Cab9

Cab9 is a powerful dispatch system with fully featured driver and passenger apps that seamlessly integrate with your workflow. Configure the system to suit your business needs and let Cab9 take care of the rest.

Cab9

Why don't you just use WhatsApp mate?

I still remember suggesting that to Marc during a late night brainstorming session when he insisted that Cab9 should have its own messaging tool. As weary as it may sound, in my defence I was just trying to buy time. There were too many features to build and a software deployment war to win. I was happy to lose a couple feature battles.

The fact is, with Cab9, we have always wanted to create a messaging tool. The defining characteristic of modern organisations is cooperation and teamwork, the kind Cab9 strives to represent, but WhatsApp seemed to be the low hanging fruit I could not help but pluck. Little did I know about the loftiness of those goals.

Aside from being the most profitable Facebook purchase, WhatApp is the best messaging platform out there. Speed, reliability, high availability, robustness are all fundamental to their platform. In the first few weeks after launch, we realised that the expectations were high and we'd have to match them if Cab9 chat was to be desirable to our customers.

We got our heads together and subsequently launched Cab9 Chat which was a native chat application available for Windows and Macs and allowed users to manage all communications using the software. In all fairness, we did a pretty decent job, it did get WhatsApp off of our clients' hands and all communication was being driven by Cab9 chat.

Until...

...Until we realised where instant messaging for business was going. Slack was launched and it disrupted the arena significantly. It's not a surprise to anyone that most businesses and employees were using it to have conversations with each other as well as with their customers. Businesses were also using IM apps to share information among employees, which, in another sense, also forges a rapid decision-making process within teams.

We had to rebuild Cab9 chat in that image. Not just a tool to communicate with the drivers but a communications platform for the whole business.

Cab9 Chat v2.0

Presenting the new Cab9 Chat - we have redefined the purpose the original chat app set out to achieve and have created a communications platform that aims to streamline all business communications. Let's find out what's new.

Direct Messages

The reason for the massive adoption of IMs like Facebook or WhatsApp among employees is the ease of use and rapid responses they provide. Other methods of workplace communication are less efficient: emails require formatting & carefully written dialog. Whereas IMs have fewer expectations attached and so the fly back and forth much more quickly. With the support for emojis they enable users to express themselves better.

Cab9 now brings direct messages to all its clientele via Cab9 chat. Apart from direct messages users can also create groups with their colleagues.

This also alleviates the need of the extra spending on an instant messaging platform like Slack/Teams which can easily cost between £8-£10/user.

Driver Chat

We have vastly improved the chat experience for drivers. The drivers can now send and receive images, files and formatted messages. Our in-built message formatter allows for easy customisation of any message.

Built into driver chat is also the ability to track your drivers who are online. This allows the control team staff to be better aware of a driver's whereabouts while chatting with them. Broadcasts and announcements are dealt with asynchronously so they do not obstruct your day to day conversations.

Workshare Partner Chat

The new Cab9 chat also supports workshare partner conversations. Two companies who have added each other as workshare partners can now see each other on Cab9 chat.  

Through workshare partner chat Cab9 aims to bring free instant messaging for business that works the same with all devices – Androids, Apple devices, and computers. When the two companies are interacting, any workshare booking they might have ongoing automatically appears on the screen so they do not need to leave the conversation.  

and hey yes, it comes in black! (Dark Mode)

We can't wait for you to try the new Cab9 Chat releasing in Spring 2021.

Cab9

Cab9 is a powerful dispatch system with fully featured driver and passenger apps that seamlessly integrate with your workflow. Configure the system to suit your business needs and let Cab9 take care of the rest.

Cab9

Hello Folks!

My name is Anjali, Project Assistant at CAB9 and I will be giving you the inside scoop with all the latest updates from Cab9. This afternoon we have released a new version of Cab9 with a range of features and improvements.

We've worked towards adding one of the highly requested features from our partner's i.e, the Payment Link feature on Cab9 in this release while solving complex bugs. You may already be aware of some of the items below, here's a list of features, modifications, and bug fixes in our latest release.

💪 New Features

Card Payment Link

Passengers can now complete their journey payments by using our secure email payment link solution. Send your passengers a secure link where they can safely add their card details and make payments for bookings. This uses your current Stripe or Judo Pay integration to collect the money on the spot.

OnRoute SMS Notification

With this new feature, users will have an option to send customers an SMS message when the driver is on their way to the pickup location in addition to all current notifications.

Export Invoice on Client Portal

Now your customers can export and download their invoices via the customer portal in excel format, thereby making them even more self-reliant.

Credit Card Management on Client Portal

Users will now be able to add and manage their credit cards conveniently through the client portal along with viewing transactions.

🛠 Modifications

Carbon Emission on Bookings export

While exporting bookings on Cab9, the Carbon Offset value will now also be displayed.

Carbon offset on Invoice

On an Excel invoice, users will be able to see total vehicle carbon emission.

Partner name on Bookings Export

Partner Name for work share bookings will now display on a bookings export.

Net Profit Percentage

Net profit percentage can now be calculated on the validation screen along with the profit percentage.

Auction Settings Page Improvements

The auction settings page has been updated with a search bar.  It will be now easier to find an automation rule by using keywords or initials.

🙈 Bug Fixes

Workshare : Office Notes

A bug wherein office notes were being copied from workshare bookings to partners is now fixed.

Invoice Button on Client Portal

An issue where invoices were not being sent via email has now been fixed in the client portal.

Auto Dispatch to consider Workshare Bookings

Auto Dispatch will no longer try and send bookings to drivers that were already booked with a Workshare partner.

Looking for more information on the new features?

We have a dedicated email address for the support team to help you get familiar with the new features. Please contact the team by dropping an email to support@cab9.zendesk.com should you require any more information or assistance on our new features.

Happy Dispatching 😀

Cab9

Cab9 is a powerful dispatch system with fully featured driver and passenger apps that seamlessly integrate with your workflow. Configure the system to suit your business needs and let Cab9 take care of the rest.

Cab9

When David and I first started working on Cab9, user interface was sort of my responsibility. In our first meeting about the customer portal we were presented with the existing solutions in the market. We figured that they did a poor job at communicating with the users.

The design and engineering were at odds with each other and the many layers between the interface and the data was a burden

Our approach was to treat the customer portal as a first class citizen within the suite of Cab9 products. It needed to be seamless and intuitive to any power and it had to work in realtime. We prototyped, developed and released a customer portal that we were proud of.

Why the change?

After the initial launch, we were expected to move swiftly. Building user interfaces that deal with a significant amount of data in software is complex. Add to the mix an ever growing team and you may often end up with disjointed experiences.

This has made us try and better understand how several developers working on completely different interfaces can efficiently collaborate to build great, cohesive software.

Say hello to Vu[e9] Components

Vu[e9] is our base UI kit to develop applications. At E9, we want to create a solid foundation which allows a more collaborative approach to building interfaces. We knew we could achieve this by investing in our own internal tools. We created a UI component toolkit to centralise our design process. Vu[e9] powers the look and feel of the customer portal.

So What's New?

Our new customer portal is not just a UI refresh. We have pretty much rebuilt the entire ecosystem around the customer portal technology. From a more robust, secure and better logged APIs to super fast data access, this redesign has been the biggest shift that any Cab9 web portal has seen yet.

Here're some of the changes:

Multi Account Access for Users

The new Cab9 customer portal allows user access to multiple accounts. This is great for your large clients as they can have users spread across multiple departments for the ease of use and yet benefit from unified reporting and access to all of the sub accounts at once.

This feature was frequently requested by a lot of our clients. With the new customer portal you can easily set a user with access to multiple accounts. This can also be used for client representatives.

Cleaner Design Approach

Contrary to the our regular approach, on the customer portal the design team had to rework  the visuals after a product has seen through several stages of evolution. This sequencing effected the complexity of our UI/UX decisions for the product. Nevertheless, we sat down with our product managers and tried to redefine how some of our larger pages could come together with the changes on some of the smaller components.

A great example of this is thought process while designing the booking strip below.

Doubling down on data security

The new customer portal is one of the most secure and GDPR compliant product we have ever built.

Cab9 policies required those who record and process personal data to be open about how it is used. This includes obtaining, recording, holding, using, sharing and destroying data.

Finally, a promise to evolve even quicker

By focusing on a collaborative approach to build better tools, and creating a unified system, we will use our time to apply creativity to solve bigger challenges.

Over the coming months, we aim to be even more agile and take giant leaps in the way we design and build software and customer portal for us is high up on our priority list. From a free SSL certificate creation for custom domains, client level brand colours and a smart chatbot integration our new customer portal will be engineered to be industry leading.

Cab9

Cab9 is a powerful dispatch system with fully featured driver and passenger apps that seamlessly integrate with your workflow. Configure the system to suit your business needs and let Cab9 take care of the rest.

Cab9